There are currently available a variety of systems for forming a hole, a via, a blind via or some other surface indentation in an exterior surface of an object, but many of these systems are very expensive to purchase and operate at relatively slow production rates.
Mechanical forensics and ballistics investigations are undertaken in most crime investigations, accident reconstruction or other situations in which one or more weapons was discharged during the commission of the crime, by accident or perhaps for justifiable cause. Reconstruction, investigation and prosecution, of all incidents of firearm use can be made easier when it is possible to show that a particular weapon was used or discharged during the specific incident being investigated or reconstructed.
Currently, such forensic investigations are expensive and time consuming and require personal training and sophisticated equipment that not every law enforcement department has or can afford. Furthermore, where the used firearm is unavailable, missing, unrecoverable or numerous weapons were discharged, investigators often have limited evidence to work with in order to determine the facts related to the situation at hand.
For example, after committing a crime, the perpetrator of a shooting usually runs away with the gun. Often the only evidence left behind is the discharged bullets themselves, if they can be found, and the spent shell casings. Scratches, marks and/or other indicia on a spent shell casing can assist an investigator with connecting the spent shell casing as being discharged from the barrel of a firearm. Such analysis is often difficult even when the firearm is available, and investigators usually need both the firearm and the spent shell casing in order to compare the scratches, marks and/or other indicia on each and make the connection that the particular shell casing was discharged from the barrel of the firearm in question.